Residents of Sunland Park, New Mexico are taking a stand on the border, literally.
Hundreds of Trump supporters linked arms along an open stretch of the border this weekend to “bring attention to the fact that there isn’t a wall here,” protestor Anthony Aguero told Reuters.
Members of the human wall donned Make America Great Again hats and clothes and carried American flags as they chanted for the president to make good on his campaign promise to “build a wall!” KINT reports.
Media coverage of the event was scant, despite the close proximity to El Paso, Texas, where Trump plans to host a rally for border security today.
Aside from drawing attention to the needed wall, protestors said their presence sends a strong message to drug smugglers and human traffickers that they will “have to find somewhere else” to carry out their crimes, Aguero said.
The show of force came on the same day several New Mexico Democrats toured the border town, though there’s no indication they stopped to discuss concerns with constituents calling for a wall.
Instead, Congresswomen Xochitl Torres Small, Deb Haaland and others met with illegal immigration advocates and visited a migrant shelter struggling to house the increasing numbers flooding across the ineffective border, KRQE reports.
Torres Small pointed to the symptoms of the bigger problem.
“We’re still seeing overcrowding in the holding cells which were never meant to hold families or children,” she said.
Haaland also avoided wall talk.
“What I did learn when speaking with federal agents is that we could use more technology, use more immigration judges,” she said.
Torres Small previously said she’s in favor of “carefully placed” border barriers “where it makes the most sense,” the Albuquerque Journal reports.
Driving east on a road known as the “loop” in Eagle Pass, Texas, and there are cops everywhere. This continues even downtown where every few blocks a police or border employee is parked. The Maverick County sheriff told me tonight they are “showing force.” pic.twitter.com/k9ToxWXACq
— Anna Giaritelli (@Anna_Giaritelli) February 10, 2019
The Trump supporters lining the border aren’t the only ones taking it upon themselves to make a stand against illegal immigration.
In Eagle Pass, Texas, more than 100 U.S. police vehicles lined a mile long stretch of the Rio Grande River to send a message to roughly 1,800 migrants who arrived at the Mexican City across the river earlier this week, The Washington Examiner reports.
“To me, it’s like showing force. It would give a message to the immigrants that want to come illegally through Texas that Texas is always prepared and have a lot of manpower at the border – that they would go to another state,” Maverick County Sheriff Tom Schmerber told the news site.
EAGLE PASS, TEXAS — More than 60 law enforcement vehicles lined up on the border in what Border Patrol is calling a “show of force” to warn caravan migrants who are just over the Rio Grande River in Piedras Negras against illegally crossing pic.twitter.com/wXopZp8etu
— Anna Giaritelli (@Anna_Giaritelli) February 10, 2019
Video footage of the show of force posted online shows dozens of pick-up trucks, SUVs, and cars from numerous law enforcement agencies including Customs and Border Protection, Border Patrol, state troopers, the Texas Department of Public Safety, military troops, active-duty National Guard, the Texas State Guard and others, the Examiner reports.
President Trump will host his own show of force at the El Paso County Coliseum tonight, when he plans to rally supporters to call on Congress to secure the border and build a wall. The rally follows the president’s decision to send an additional 4,000 active duty military to the border and illegal immigrant crossings continue to increase sharply.
Democrats have refused Trump’s demand for $5.7 billion to construct the border wall, which led to a government shutdown in January. The president has publicly mulled the possibility of declaring a national emergency to build the wall and avoid another government shutdown when the resolution expires on Feb. 15, if Democrats continue to reject a wall.
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